Alice Gong, M.D., has received an educational grant of $162,000 from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The funds will be used to develop an educational program for health care providers on screening newborns for critical congenital heart disease using pulse oximetry. Photo courtesy of the Texas Medical Association.
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By Rosanne Fohn

Alice Gong, M.D., has been awarded an educational grant of $162,000 from the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS). The funding will be used to develop, implement and evaluate an educational strategy to train health care providers on screening newborns for critical congenital heart disease using pulse oximetry.

Pulse oximetry is a non-invasive and painless technology that measures oxygen saturation in arterial blood.

Dr. Gong is a professor in the Division of Neonatology, part of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

Texas Pediatric Society award
Dr. Gong also recently was presented the Texas Pediatric Society (TPS) Executive Board Award for her service to the society’s Medical Education Committee and to the general membership for her continued leadership in the continuing medical education process for the annual meeting, held in September in Plano.

In addition to serving on the TPS Executive Board and Committee on Medical Education, Dr. Gong has served as chair of the Fetus and Newborn Committee and continues to lend her educational expertise to these two committees.

Also receiving an award at the conference was third-year Health Science Center medical resident Ryan Van Ramshorst, M.D. He received an American Academy of Pediatrics Special Achievement Award for his acquisition and implementation of a community pediatrics advocacy training grant in 2011.

Newborn screening grant
Regarding the grant from the TDSHS, screening for critical congenital heart disease can detect seven defects that represent about 17-31 percent of all congenital heart disease. All require some type of intervention soon after a child is born.

It has been estimated that at least 280 infants with an unrecognized CCHD are discharged each year from newborn nurseries in the United States. Infants with CCHD are at risk for significant illness or death early in life.

The Texas Pulse Oximetry Project (TxPOP) is a joint educational initiative with Baylor College of Medicine, under the leadership of Dr. Charleta Guillory and her colleagues.

Nurses, physicians and other health care providers at 15 hospitals in South Texas and the Houston area will receive training in screening methods for critical congenital heart disease, as well as educational materials.

Nurse champions, designated by the hospitals, will be trained to reinforce and sustain education and conduct quality assurance on the screening process. The project is scheduled for completion in August 2013.